1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computing devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for invoking a command within a user interface by performing a gesture.
2. Related Art
Many resource-constrained mobile devices, such as cell phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and portable media players, have touch-sensitive screens that accept input from a user in place of a traditional keyboard and/or mouse. However, the screens on these devices are often quite small, and typically provide high-resolution to display as much information as possible within the limited screen space. However, this limited screen space can lead to a multitude of input errors.
For example, some touch-sensitive devices do not come equipped with, or do not work with, a stylus. These devices require the use of a thumb or finger to provide input to the device. However, when a user wants to select an object in close proximity with another object, it can be very difficult to choose the intended object without accidentally choosing the adjacent object. Moreover, this problem is further compounded by the fact that the thumb or finger typically obscures the object one is trying to select.
In order to alleviate these problems, some devices employ a shift and magnification window to facilitate selection of the intended object. When a user places a finger on the display and holds it there for a predetermined amount of time, a smaller window pops up that displays the contents directly below the user's finger. On some devices, this window also magnifies the area directly underneath the finger tip. However, these approaches can be fraught with problems. For example, the user must wait a predetermined amount of time before the shift window is displayed. If the user needs to select multiple objects, this process can take considerable time. Furthermore, the shift window can obscure other objects on the screen.
In addition, this approach does little to solve the problem of selecting the intended object when the intended object and other objects are stacked on top of each other in the display. For example, multiple location objects may be physically on top of each other on the display if the locations represent different suites within the same building.